Heartland's Most Wanted
by Fenghuang0296
Summary: You'd be surprised how much paperwork goes into a war. Every mission has to be typed up, reported, assessed, files on known fugitives and their exploits, it's a nightmare . . . unless you bother to actually read the logs. Who knows? Academia's old files might be more interesting than you'd think.
1. Prologue: Edo's Quiet Place

Prologue: Academia's Files

Edo strolled down the corridors in the basement of Academia's forward base in Heartland, looking around at the tall shelves and cabinets, full of papers.

It was Edo's quiet place, where he came to sit and think. Sometimes he needed some time away from the hustle and bustle of Obelisk Force - especially from Mamoru Noro's constant blather - and the ruins of Heartland outside were too depressing to spend time in.

Still, he reflected, looking around. Who would have thought that an invasion could generate so much paperwork?

Suddenly, the commander tripped on a gash in the floor. He swung forwards, toppling into a shelf. It overbalanced, collapsing to the ground and scattering papers everywhere as the silver-haired Duelist fell on top of it.

Edo straightened, rubbing his head. "I really hope no one saw that," he groaned, sitting up and picking a paper off his foot. He cast a cursory glance at it and paused, seeing its title.

'HOUSE OUTSIDE CITY DEEMED OFF-LIMITS ZONE'.

"Huh, I wonder what happened there?" the man wondered, opening the file and reading on . . .

A/N

A/N

This is something I'v been meaning to do for a while, in the interim until I can take the hiatus of YT. Unfortunately, I forgot to post it, which I really should have done last week, so . . . oh well. XD

{blows dust off salvaged desk} Now then, the Point Ohvieu (say it out loud, you'll get the pun) studios are still under construction, so for the time being I'm still operating out of the ruins of Shamar.

{looks out at deserted street through hole in the wall} Yes. The ruins of my library in the ghost town of Shamar. Bloody real estate agents . . .

Anyway - oh, poop. The camera's battery is about to di-


	2. Where Monsters Fear To Tread

Where Monsters Fear To Tread

Flare was steadily becoming extremely sick of roads.

She had been driving for two days now, on and off, crashing across the back seats of her father's car when she felt too tired to continue. Thank goodness for the high-tech self-sustaining power cell contained within the car in place of an old-fashioned fuel engine. A job as a highly respected scientist and technician in the Heartland power grid was responsible for this upgrade, and thank god for that. Gas was scarce since the invasion. Most of it had exploded.

Perhaps leaving had been cowardly, she awkwardly thought to herself. A good person would have stayed to help the other survivors of the catastrophe that had befallen her beloved city.

But everyone who had ever said Flare was a good person was dead now. Besides, she sighed to herself. It had been too much for her, seeing Heartland City reduced to a three-acre maze of rubble and a spotty scattering of refugee camps.

Her train of thought froze in an instant as she saw a dreaded silhouette appear in the skyline a couple of kilometres away. It was an Ancient Gear Chaos Giant, one of the giant walking war machines that the hated oppressors of Obelisk Force had used to destroy her home. And by the looks of things, they hadn't stopped with Heartland.

The tall metal warrior-like machine's glowing red eyes glared down at the forested countryside below it as though it had personally insulted the monster.

She floored the accelerator.

X

Flare cheerfully hummed to herself as she drove on, in a significantly better mood than she had been half an hour ago.

Behind her, the burnt and tortured carcass of the Giant lay smoking, draped across a hill like a giant sacrifice to God above.

"Damn shame I don't believe in God," Flare shrugged to herself, a storm of anguish crossing her face. "Because what kind of God would let something like that happen?" she asked rhetorically, recalling the blackened ruins of her home.

Fuming in irritation, the redhead paused in surprise as her car passed a sign that said 'Rest Stop - 2 km'. Another sign beneath it, which looked a lot less official, cheerfully advertised 'Bed and Breakfast'.

"A B&B?" she blinked. As the thought of passing it by swept into her mind, her stomach rumbled in protest, and she banished the idea at once, licking her lips. "If they've got a good steak, I might just take up residence,"

It wasn't long before she pulled the car to a halt, stopping it on the side of the road and swinging the door open. A three-storey, old-fashioned brick building, with shuttered windows framed in dirty black brick. A once-colourful but faded and emancipated sign declared "Be & Br akf st," above the door. An obviously-more-recent sign, made of paint and what looked suspiciously like an old bedsheet, partially obscured the elderly door and cheerfully declared "OBELISK FORCE COME HERE AND DIE," Flare stifled a chuckle and strode onwards. Whoever lived here obviously had their head screwed on straight.

Even so, she readied her Duel Disk, preparing for a confrontation. For all she knew, despite the lingering sign, the oppressors had already captured this haven and were lying in wait. It wouldn't do to single-handedly take down four Ancient Gear Chaos Giants in as many days, only to be sniped off from a balcony by some trigger-happy grunt.

So lost in her musings, she didn't notice an obstruction hidden in the grass behind her. "Whowpf!" Flare gasped, tripping over a bowl-shaped object that caught her foot and sent her sprawling into the knee-high yellow grass that surrounded the dilapidated building. She turned in fury - and froze.

Lying there, next to her foot, was a silver helmet with a distinctive three-pronged emblem and red crystal on the front. It was the headgear of an Obelisk Force soldier.

A savage grin split her face as she picked herself up, snatching up the helmet in her free hand and continuing on her way to the front door of the house.

Flare rapped sharply on the door, keeping her finger poised over the button that would arm her Duel Disk, and waited for someone to respond.

The redhead blinked as the door swung open, seemingly of its own volition. "Ah, hello?" she called, stepping into the lobby of the building. "Someone drop this?" she questioned, lifting the discarded helmet into the air.

It was a spacious room, and had been quite cosy. Stuffed red armchairs hinted that it was a nice place, with a leather sofa nearby a marble-encrusted fireplace and, tucked in the corner, an oaken desk with a swivel chair behind it and a computer mounted on top.

It had been that way at some point, at least. The armchairs were upended, leaking stuffing from mortal wounds in their lining, and the sofa had been torn in half. One of the parts was sitting within the cracked and charred fireplace, badly scorched, and the other was nowhere to be seen. The desk had been eviscerated, draws full of paperwork spread across the singed carpet, with splinters of wood and chunks of leg dashed around the room. A deep puncture had broken the screen of the computer and crushed the hard drive unit, and the swivel chair that had been behind it - was lying on its side, completely undamaged. Flare crossed the room in disbelief and lifted the lightweight plastic furnishing in both hands, looking it over in confusion. "I guess they make these things to last," she commented with a shrug, dropping the chair right-side-up and looking around from her new position in the corner.

It didn't take her long to find the missing half of the couch. There was a gaping hole in the ceiling, close to the door, that she had missed when she entered, from which the bottom of the sofa drooped precariously. The girl winced. "Glad I'm not standing there," she muttered.

Flare froze as a _creeeeeak_ echoed from somewhere else in the house. Her orange eyes darted to the open doorway a few metres away, and she swept her free hand to her wrist to activate the gauntlet-like weapon on her left forearm. The comforting, familiar blade of orange light extended from her wrist, and the girl held it at the ready as the advanced towards the broken door that led further into the house.

"Okay. I'm alone in a destroyed house, and there might be something in here with me that's probably responsible for all this," The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Destroying furniture like this wasn't Obelisk Force's style. If not them, then maybe some kind of wild animal?

Flare burst out laughing at the very thought, tears of mirth appearing in her eyes. "I'm the goddam Black Flare," she giggled to herself. "Some zoo reject won't stop me,"

The smile was wiped off her face as laughter echoed back to her. A shiver went up her spine as she listened to her own words, repeated from the depths of the house in a high-pitched, mocking tone. _"I'm the goddamn Black Flare. Some zoo reject won't stop me. Bahahahahahahahaaa!"_

Lifting the table leg, she did her best not to let the fear show. "You don't scare me!" the girl shouted. "I watched my city burn, I watched my father die! Some crappy creepypasta ain't gonna get the best of me!"

A noise that sounded suspiciously like a burp returned to her, followed by her own words once more, again in that mocking tone. _"I watched my city burn, I watched my father die! Some crappy creepypasta ain't gonna get the best of me! Bahahahahahahahaaa!"_

In that moment, her temper spiked. "That's it!" Flare barked, kicking the sagging lobby door straight off its hinges and storming down the corridor.

Her pace slowed as she passed more rooms to the building. Doors swung open in the vain hope that she would enter. Even so, she couldn't stop herself from peering into a couple. Similar sights graced her eyes to the lobby, mattresses shredded and desks reduced to kindling. The girl jumped in shock as a long, outstretched shadow reached across a partially ajar door, looking for all the world like the gnarled, twisted hand of a witch - but in half a second she remembered what a cliche this was. A shadow of a hand against a wall turns out to just be a tree branch outside the convenient open window . . . Flare froze.

There had been no trees within twenty metres of the house.

The girl nervously, but powerfully, swung her stick in a wide arc, letting it curve through the doorway to impact whatever was casting the shadow. A muffled crack told her that her effort had not been in vain, and she peered in through the door.

An overgrown bonsai tree, barren, twig-like branches broken off from her hit lying on the floor beside it, lay on the ground. There was a small shelf just inside the door and a lamp that somehow still worked. Probably had its own internal power supply, Flare guessed. It had been the lamp casting the shadows of the bonsai branches onto the door that had looked like the claw of a witch.

"Well, now I feel stupid," Flare shook her head, but stiffened as the same high-pitched voice from before echoed her voice. _"Now I feel stupid!"_

The redhead took a second to process this, then burst out laughing. "So this thing is gonna repeat everything I say?"

 _"So this thing is gonna repeat everything I say?"_ the mocking voice echoed back.

"Alright then. I am an incompetent villain who couldn't steal cash from his grandma's wallet and I am not scary!" Flare shot back.

Ominous silence echoed back to her. The redhead shrugged. "Worth a try," And with that, the edge taken off her fear by the moment of laughter, she strolled through the house in search of her would-be assailant, stepping over a lone dumbbell at the end of the hall and ascending a nearby set of stairs with a smile, barely noticing footprints in the dust at her feet.

As she reached the top, her fear suddenly sharpened itself to a diamond point, and pressed against her spine like a dagger.

A trio of Obelisk Force soldiers lay at the top of the landing, lying on their backs. The two who still wore their helmets had dried blood pooled around them, soaking their uniforms, and cavities in the metal plating that meant no human head could ever fit into them and live to tell the tale.

Flare carefully averted her eyes from the third, who lacked a helmet, and instead observed the way they had died. The three were all sprawled on their backs, as though they had been thrown backwards, and the two she would let herself look at had deep gashes in their foreheads, crumpling the three-pronged Obelisk Force insignia. That suggested they had taken a heavy blow to the head. It looked to have been inflicted in ways that were too similar, so they hadn't been killed in a fight . . Flare froze and ducked, staying low as she crept forwards. Based on everything she had read in Sherlock Holmes, it was logical to conclude that there was some kind of booby-trap at head height.

As she crouched, she kept an eye out for tell-tale tripwires, but knew that was unlikely. Motion sensors were a far more likely choice for triggering traps, and easy enough to get - she stopped herself. This wasn't Heartland, where technology was easily accessible to all. This was the middle of nowhere. It could easily be a tripwire.

A beep alerted her that she had been right. It was a motion sensor. She flattened herself against the ground, waiting for the telltale whoosh of something going over her head.

After a few seconds, the redhead dared to look up, to see a plank on the floor repeatedly throwing itself up like a catapult. She recalled the dumbbell at the bottom of the stairs, where it could easily have been thrown by such a device. "Guess this thing only had one shot. Thanks for taking the hit, bastards!" she called over her shoulder to the dead bodies of the Obelisk Force.

 _"Thanks for taking the hit, bastards!"_ the voice from before echoed back to her. Flare clenched her fists, striding onwards and through into the single room that took up most of the upper floor. "Alright. Where the hell are you?"

 _"Alright. Where the hell are you?"_ Flare immediately glared into the corner where the voice had come from - and blinked. Standing there, perched on the backrest of a faded armchair, was a lush green parrot. _"Now I feel stupid! Bahahahahahahahaaa!"_ The parrot parroted her earlier statement. "Got it in one, bird," the girl sighed, looking around.

The room was in a similar state of disrepair as the lobby had been, with shredded furniture and a smashed bed. There was a gaping hole where a window had once been, which the redhead walked over to in hopes of a clue. Stains of dried blood marred the shattered glass.

No matter how Flare looked at it, there was no rational explanation for the situation. But even so, she had found out what she needed to know. There was no food, cooked or otherwise, in the building. Ergo, there was no reason to stay.

"I'm hitting the road. You coming, birdy?" she turned back to where the bird had been.

It was gone.

Laughter echoed through the house. " _Bahahahahahahahaaa_ ,"

Flare rolled her eyes, but all the same, jumped through the hole in the floor created by the couch from the lobby to exit.

It wasn't worth going back into the house.

}={

Edo raised his eyebrows. "How odd," he frowned. "I might have to investigate this further,"

A/N

A/N

/NO SIGNAL/


End file.
